Dance Bars

MUMBAI: Investigators probing the activities of stamp paper scam accused Abdul Karim Telgi have found that besides investing in Bollywood, he had also pumped money into dance bars in Mumbai. CBI officials, who are wrapping up the probe for chargesheeting nearly 65 accused, said there is evidence that some proceeds of crime were diverted for the production of a Hindi film by 'Snna movies international'. Telgi told CBI that he had hired two consultants for finding some business...

KOLKATA: Rising number of illegal dance bars in the city and its outskirts are playing a pivotal role in pushing women from West Bengal and other states into bar dancing and eventually into organised flesh trade, a senior police official said. A senior Kolkata Police officer said illegal dance bars have increased in number over the past four to five years due to a nexus between land sharks and promoters. "Promoters are getting land at cheaper rates from syndicate land sharks...

KOLKATA: Rising number of illegal dance bars in the city and its outskirts are playing a pivotal role in pushing women from West Bengal and other states into bar dancing and eventually into organised flesh trade, a senior police official said. A senior Kolkata Police officer said illegal dance bars have increased in number over the past four to five years due to a nexus between land sharks and promoters. "Promoters are getting land at cheaper rates from syndicate land sharks...

MUMBAI: Over 1,000 dancing bar joints in the city will down their shutters starting midnight tonight to protest Maharashtra government's decision to close the bars in rest of the state. "The government cannot fool us", the president of bar association of Mumbai, Manjit Sethi said adding, "They want to sow a rift between us and break our unity through such disparity. " "But the dance bars in the city would remain closed to show their solidarity with the bars in rest of the state which...

MUMBAI: Maharashtra government today told the Bombay High Court that it hadn't yet framed the policy allowing restaurants and pubs in the city to remain open 24 hours a day. The statement was made by the government lawyer Maulina Thakur before the division bench headed by Justice V M Kanade which was hearing a public interest litigation on women's safety. The bench recorded the statement and adjourned the matter to June 16. On March 6, the court had...

MUMBAI: Bombay High Court has asked Maharashtra government whether it has taken a decision to allow restaurants and pubs in the city to remain open 24 hours a day and, if such a policy had been framed, whether it was done taking into consideration the aspect of women's safety. The query was raised by a bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka yesterday while hearing a PIL on women's safety. Hearing the PIL, high court had earlier...

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government deferred its decision to issue an ordinance banning dance bars in the state on Wednesday, just after one of the most vocal critics of the move passed away. The Vilasrao Deshmukh government was to issue an ordinance on Wednesday to ban dance bars, after ratifying the decision to amend the Mumbai Police Act last week. "The formal issuance will take place on next Wednesday," Mr Deshmukh and his deputy RR Patil, an architect of the 'dance bar hatao campaign' had announced...

MUMBAI: Far from high-street banks and the roller-coaster stock market, a quaint, almost unknown world of private finance is feeling the tremors of the clamp down on dance bars across Maharashtra. The impending closure of 700 dance bars in the city and another 650 in the state will affect more than the livelihood of people associated with the business. At risk is the collapse of a 50-year-old financing system that has helped entrepreneurship flourish. All hell may break loose in the Rs...

MUMBAI: In its first crackdown after the legislation banning dance bars was enacted earlier, police arrested over 200 people, including 90 bar girls, from six dance bars that were allegedly found running the business in western Mumbai on Wednesday night. Police raided 12 dance bars in and around Powai and Saki Naka on a tip off. "Eventually, we found six bars" in violation of the ban and "we arrested the bar girls, staff as well as the customers present inside...

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court admitted a public interest litigation (PIL), filed by Association of Hotels and Restaurants, challenging the ban on dance bars in Maharashtra. Admitting the plea, Justice AP Shah and Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud asked the state to file a reply and adjourned the matter to October 3 for further hearing. Advocate General Ravi Kadam submitted that the state had banned dance bars in view of complaints about exploitation of bar girls and...

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government decided to include the dance bars in Mumbai under the recently announced blanket ban on dance bars in the state. A decision to this effect was taken at the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, government sources said. The announcement in this regard is likely to be made by deputy chief minister and home minister, RR Patil in the state legislature soon, sources added. Mr Patil had on March 31 announced ban on dance bars in the state excluding Mumbai, for...

PANAJI: Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar today said appropriate action will be taken against those involved in running dance bars and alleged prostitution in the coastal belt. "I have received reports about what has been happening in the coastal belt. I have initiated appropriate action in the matter," Parsekar, told PTI on the sidelines of two-day long 'Science Fiesta' programme. Last week, a group of protesters, purportedly led by ...

PANAJI: Senior Goa BJP leader Michael Lobo today sat on a day-long hunger strike demanding shutting down of all dance bars in the Calangute-Baga beach belt. Lobo along with several of his supporters began the token strike at Baga junction and accused the state government of "not acting against illegal dance bars in the area, because of which the local women were feeling unsafe. " "The women in this area are feeling unsafe. Dance bars are illegally operating in the...

MUMBAI: Senior NCP leader RR Patil , who was Maharashtra's Home Minister during the 26/11 terror attacks, died here today from cancer at the age of 57. Patil breathed his last at Lilavati Hospital where he was on life support, hospital sources said. The NCP leader, a six-term MLA from Tasgaon in Sangli district, is survived by his mother, wife, and two daughters. Admired for his clean image and easy accessibility, Patil was among the top rung leaders of NCP....

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court today sought to know from Maharashtra government as to when would it implement all the recommendations of the Justice (retd) CS Dharmadhikari committee on measures to ensure safety of women. The High Court was informed that 109 recommendations of the committee had been accepted, while decision on 32 was still pending. Of these 32 recommendations, 21 had been forwarded to a task force appointed by the government to consider whether they...

MUMBAI: The Justice C S Dharmadhikari Committee, set up to recommend measures to curb crimes against women, has asked Maharashtra Government to enforce a "complete ban" on dance bars and frame a policy to check "vulgarity" on social networking sites such as Facebook. These suggestions by the state government-appointed panel are contained in its fourth and fifth interim reports submitted to the Bombay High Court on a PIL seeking measures to ensure safety...

MUMBAI: Despite the SC lifting the ban on dance bars in Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra, it might take several weeks - even months - for the dancing girls to make a comeback to the beer bars after the state government banished them from the city's night life eight years back. The state government, backed by all political parties, is exploring all options to challenge the top court's verdict, and is contemplating whether to file a review petition in the SC, making its intent clear that it...

PANAJI: The Goa government today said it will not issue excise licence to dance bars in the state. "I will not give excise licence to dance bars in Goa," Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told reporters after the state Cabinet meeting here. Rather, if any of the bars are doubling up as dance bars, their excise licence would be withdrawn, he said. The police during recent raids had closed down few of the bars where women dancers were...

MUMBAI: Hotels, restaurants and pubs in Maharashtra, which are in a tizzy over the state government's new law banning dance performances, can console themselves with the thought that they can host film award ceremonies or dance performances based on Indian classical music, at least as long as these events are episodic. The fate of discotheques, which are normally open to patrons every day, is less certain. The confusion is because earlier this month the state assembly passed a...

MUMBAI: A day before the end of the session, the Maharashtra Assembly passed a bill banning dance performances in five, four, three star hotels and gymkhanas. The urgency with which the bill was passed in the Assembly on Friday evening could be gauged from the fact that there was not much discussion on the ban. The bill was placed before the Legislative Council on Friday itself and is expected to be cleared in the...